Mackem Banned From Causing Nuisance

The BBC are reporting that a Sunderland man (and let's face it, that's hardly a surprise now is it) has been given an ASBO banning him from causing nuisance ANYWHERE in England & Wales*. Which is some achievement.

Getting over my own racism toward the great unwashed, I do find it utterly astounding that someone can get an ASBO for something so general as this. Surely it's illegal to cause public nuisance anyway? If you cause a breach of the peace, you can be arrested. So why give him an ASBO?

Since Labour came to power, they have introduced (and are planning on introducing still more) laws that are basically identical to ones already on the statute books, but just not fully implemented on a nationwide business due to their being too few police to do anything when they're broken.

Today, Jacqui Smith has announced she's going to give police more power to seize alcohol** from teenagers (under 18)***. Well, I know this'll come as a surprise to you love, but that's already a law. It's like saying "we're going to make murdering people with cheese illegal". The public go "oh good, there's been a couple of high profile cheese deaths recently, go you Jacqui" then pause and think, "wait, isn't murder of ANY kind already illegal?"

The Government really have missed a trick today. The guy from Sunderland has often been found shouting racist abuse from the City Hall steps at 10am while drunk. As a punishment he should be sent round schools to talk to kids about the dangers of alcohol. Once they realise that drinking could lead to being a Mackem, the kids are bound to stop binge-drinking in a heartbeat.

* - I'm presuming that it doesn't include Scotland because being drunk and noisy in Scotland isn't so much causing nuisance as "joining in"

** - Most entertainingly police removed 6500 pints from kids in 2006; in a one month period between October and November. Now perhaps I'm being nostaligic for when I were a lad, but I'm sure our school alone used to consume more than that in a month. Tsk, kids these days, eh? No idea.

*** - Which would mean that sharing some wine with your children in a restaurant would now become illegal. And technically, all the supermarket shelf stackers would need to be over 18 to work in the alcohol section. She really hasn't thought this through, has she?